Search form

Extreme Wealth and Poverty Grow in Brooklyn

A quick look at some of Brooklyn's demographic data illustrates a dramatic divide between the Borough's most wealthy and most poor - economic segregation at its extreme in America.

In Brooklyn, New York City's wealthiest and poorest often live in close proximity. Elena Milin and Lore Croghan report, "[n]ow more than ever, Brooklyn has become a tale of two boroughs, with rich and poor in parallel worlds."

"We have more poor people in Brooklyn than the entire population of Detroit; we have more people on food stamps than the entire population of Washington, D.C.," Marilyn Gelber, president of the Brooklyn Community Foundation said. "Yet there are more wealthy people than in Greenwich, Conn."

Statistics compiled by Milin and Croghan paint a contrasting picture:

Sixty-nine people have been shot this year in Brownsville. Four miles away, a mansion at 70 Willow St. in Brooklyn Heights sold for the borough's highest-ever home price of $12.5 million.

Brooklyn sent five athletes to the Olympics but one in four borough residents is obese.

Brooklyn has 113 colleges and universities but only 29% of borough residents have college degrees.